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“You’re staring at him,” Knot tells Arthit.
Arthit ducks his head back into his Charms book and glares at his friend. “I'm not!” He mumbles as loud as it is allowed, though unconvincingly since his ears visibly heat up.
Knot just smiles at him, and that smile grows wider when Arthit pointedly refuses to look up from his book, busying himself with writing down notes he doesn’t even need.
They’re in the library, and they’re supposed to be studying for an exam on the theories of non-verbal spells, but Arthit has spent most of the hour stealing glances and, sometimes, outright staring at a group of Slytherins and Hufflepuffs a few tables from theirs. Actually, he's eyeing one Slytherin in particular.
“You know, you could try telling him how you feel,” Knot says, putting down his quill. He can ace Charms even when asleep. He’s not all that worried about how much time they’re wasting. Arthit and his gigantic crush on Kongpob are more entertaining for him.
It’s a tiny bit pathetic, but entertaining at the same time.
Arthit glances up from his notes, giving Knot a scandalized look, as if what he said is out of the realm of possibility. “No way!”
“You’re a Gryffindor, Arthit. You’re supposed to be brave.”
“And you’re a Ravenclaw, Knot. You should be smart enough to know that Gryffindors and Slytherins don’t go well together.” He tries to lower his book again to catch a glimpse of the Slytherin.
He might be hallucinating, but Kongpob is staring back at him. He looks at him studiously, as if not believing that the Slytherin is also staring at his eyes.
Then, it hit him. Kongpob is really looking at him!
He quickly covers his face with his book and pretends to read a line over and over. Knot witnesses this and sighs. He shakes his head and picks up his quill and starts writing again. “Just tell him how you feel.”
Arthit gives his friend another annoyed look, but he’s kind of worried that Knot is judging his courage.
It isn’t that he’s a coward. He’s downright a Gryffindor, the house of the brave and bold. Hagrid’s Blast-Ended Skewts? Chicken to him. Testing out Tutah’s insane experimental potions? He’ll drink them, as long as Madame Pomfrey is on standby. But actually talking to Kongpob Suthiluck?
Bloody hell. No way!
✯
“So, when are you going to tell him?” Knot asks Arthit again. They are in his room, trying to help Arthit perfect the formula to creating the drink he likes back at home. Of all his friends, Arthit’s sure the Ravenclaw is the one that can help him.
But he’s somehow fed up now that Knot only talks about Kongpob. He just rolls his eyes and starts packing his things. “I think we should call it a day,” he says, ignoring Knot’s question.
He’s walking back to the Gryffindor Tower when he hears somebody calling his name. It’s so faint, however, that he ignores it.
“Arthit?”
The voice calls his name again, and he’s sure that voice is familiar. While the staring contest with Kongpob earlier was real, he’s now sure that he’s just imagining his voice.
“Arthit?”
He continues to ignore it, thinking he’s just hearing things. Knot is right, he thinks. He really needs to do something about this crush before it drives him insane.
“Arthit!”
Arthit blinks. The voice is now loud, confirming he’s not just imagining things. He turns around and comes face to face with Kongpob. It’s like his heart leaps into his throat.
The Slytherin is giving him a strange look, somehow amused but a bit wary.
“Kongpob!” Arthit croaks. He clears his throat before embarrassing himself more. “What are you doing here?”
“That should be my question to you.” Kongpob’s sculpted eyebrow quirks up, and Arthit can feel his cheeks heating up even more as he catches sight of the prefect badge pinned on Kongpob’s robes.
“Rounds?”
“Yes,” Kongpob answers him with a teasing smile.
Arthit finds himself smiling back but quickly looks away, biting on his lower lip because he feels the beginning of what Knot calls his “idiot grin.”
“You always do that,” Kongpob tells him.
Arthit is clueless. “Do what?”
Kongpob shakes his head, all the warmth from his earlier teasing gone. “Forget it.”
There’s a long pause, during which Arthit is mentally scrambling to figure out what he did that changed the mood so drastically.
Kongpob shifts and looks at him again. “You should go back to your dorm, Arthit. Curfew.”
“Yes, I should go,” he says while still staring at Kongpob’s robes instead of walking away. He wants to apologize, but the words get stuck in his throat. He’s not even sure what to apologize for.
“Do you like me?” Kongpob asks out of the blue.
Arthit repeatedly blinks and swallows. “Huh?”
Kongpob rolls his eyes and shifts his stance again. “I need to do my rounds. Good night, Arthit.”
Arthit, however, doesn’t wish him a good night back. He just nips away without even looking back at Kongpob, who’s smiling that he has gotten the best of the Gryffindor again.
✯
Ravenclaw’s first Quidditch game of the season is coming up. Though Arthit wants to sleep in the dorm all day, he needs to show his support to his best friend who will be practicing with the rest of his team. Ravenclaw will be battling against Slytherin, and with Kongpob, the green team’s captain, on the lead, they surely will have one hell of a match.
Knot’s team is looking good this year, Arthit thinks with some uneasiness. Whichever team wins, Gryffindor will have some stiff competition. He wonders if their team would be able to lead them to victory or they’re going to squander Tum’s legacy.
Arthit's musings stop when someone takes the seat beside him. He turns his head, and breath rushes out of him.
It’s Kongpob, wearing a simple grey shirt and very short black shorts. He's a little sweaty, probably coming from a jog.
Maybe this is a dream. Maybe Tutah had dosed him with one of his stupid potions he tried earlier, and this is some sort of hallucination. Why would Kongpob even sit next to him?
“-hit? Arthit?”
He blinks and looks around. He’s surprised to see himself still at the pitch and not in his bed. No, this isn’t a dream or a hallucination, and yes, Kongpob is definitely sitting beside him.
He looks away quickly, ears turning red. “Sorry. I was–” He makes some vague gesture with his hands and hopes it would be enough of an explanation. Then, as if giving up, he looks away, and his idiot grin starts to form again.
Kongpob lets out a small chuckle and sits closer to him. “You always do that.”
Their distance earlier already caused his gears to not function, but now, they really give up and break from their shafts. “Wha–”
Kongpob looks back at the field and sighs. “Nevermind.”
Arthit slowly moves away for his gears to function again, even a bit. “What are you doing here?”
“Spying,” Kongpob says nonchalantly, as if it’s completely acceptable to do so. “Your best friend, he’s a threat to us.”
Arthit just nods. He understands the spying thing. He thinks for sure, Knot will be on Slytherin’s practice tomorrow as well.
They watch the blue team’s practice with an easy conversation on Kongpob’s side, but a very sweaty one on Arthit’s.
Of course, Arthit has to ruin the already awkward conversation. “What did you mean?” He asks Kongpob.
“Hmm?”
Arthit takes a deep breath. “You said I ‘always do that.’ What do I always do?”
There's a long silence after the question that Arthit thinks Kongpob won't answer him. He looks back to the field, searching for his best friend to help him in his situation.
“You look away,” Kongpob says.
“What?” Arthit asks, not understanding the other's answer.
“It’s a stupid thing to be upset over, I know... but you always look away from me. Why, Arthit? Am I ugly?”
The question hangs in the air between them as Arthit's mind races for an answer.
Kongpob shakes his head, eyes cast downwards. “Like I said, it’s stupid, and we should—”
“I like you!”
Arthit says it too quickly. His eyes are on his own lap, knees closed. He doesn’t want the other to think that he's looking away because he's ugly; he's the complete opposite of that. So he admitted it, finally. The Gryffindor in him won. Knot should be here to congratulate him.
Kongpob lets out a very audible sigh. “Finally.” Arthit looks at him curiously. “I thought you wouldn't admit it.”
Arthit's heart drops. “Y–you know?”
Kongpob chuckles. He loves doing that whenever interacting with Arthit. “Before you look away from me, I always catch you staring.”
Arthit’s heart pounds hard.
“I'm not stupid, Arthit. I know you like me. And I know I'm not ugly,” he says before standing up. “Your friend is coming here, and I don't want him to catch me spying. Bring me to Hogsmeade this weekend?”
Arthit does his signature repeated blinking. “W-what?”
“Would you ask me for a date, or what?”
“I—”
“Any second now, Gryffindor.”
He already admitted it, so there's nothing else to lose.
“WouldyoucomewithmetoHogsmeadethisSunday?”
Kongpob laughs and gives him a quirky eyebrow. “Sure.” He then walks away before Knot flies to the bleachers.
When Knot reaches Arthit, he finds his friend smitten and terrified all at once. “What was that? Did you tell him?”
Arthit is about to open his mouth to respond…
“Arthit!”
...but he hears his name being called again.
“Watch me win the game against your friend, okay?” Kongpob proudly shouts from the stairs.
Knot doesn’t know if he should be proud of his friend for talking with Kongpob or if he should be annoyed at the Slytherin’s arrogance.
Arthit, however, is sure about what he feels.
✯
Bonus scene:
Knot is waiting for Arthit outside the Quidditch pitch. It's the day of Ravenclaw’s game versus Slytherin.
Arthit comes dragging his broomstick. If there's a way for Arthit to not actually use his broomstick, he'll always choose it. But that's not what bothers Knot.
Knot’s eyes narrow as he catches sight of the scarf his best friend is wearing. A scarf? It’s not anything weird. It’s mid-November, after all.
What’s bothering Knot are the stripes of green and silver on it.
Knot is a Ravenclaw.
And last time he checked, Arthit is a Gryffindor.
“I shouldn't have pushed you to talk to Kongpob if I knew you would turn your back on me like this,” Knot says flatly when Arthit stops beside him.
He has never known such betrayal.